Zürcher Nachrichten - Meta profits from known pro-Russian disinfo network: researchers

Tens of thousands of Facebook users in France, Germany, Poland and Italy were targeted with cartoons mocking French politicians, messages hostile to European aid to Ukraine and other so-called sponsored content.

A report by digital manipulation specialists titled "Influence by Design" claimed that the pro-Russian "Doppelganger" operation, widely known about since 2022, was behind the posts.

The report published in mid-January by Check First, Reset Tech and AI Forensics said Meta was paid $338,000 between August 2023 and November 2024 to place at least 8,000 pieces of sponsored content.

Doppelganger started out by imitating Western media outlets to relay anti-Ukraine and anti-Western messages.

The operation has continued to prosper on various social networks, including ads on Facebook.

- Posts blocked -

Two Russian companies were widely accused of being behind the content and they were sanctioned in July 2023 by the European Union and later by the United States and Britain.

But one of them, the Social Design Agency (SDA), continued to publish on Facebook, according to the report.

"Despite these sanctions, Meta continued to review, approve and distribute advertisements linked to the SDA," said Check First chief Guillaume Kuster.

"This raises critical legal concerns regarding compliance with international sanctions frameworks."

The researchers said the number of posts was likely to be much higher because they focused only on the revelations from a leak of SDA documents first reported in Estonian and German media.

Without naming it directly, Meta acknowledged the existence of Doppelganger in September 2022, referring to a "coordinated influence campaign" linked to Russia on Facebook.

Contacted by AFP about the new claims, Meta referred to its previous reports mentioning digital threats linked to Russia, including one published in mid-2024 acknowledging the presence of ads related to Doppelganger.

Meta also said it was "the first tech company to uncover the campaign", adding that it had blocked tens of thousands of posts related to the network.

- 'Sophistication' -

Joseph Bodnar, a researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), said Doppelganger had expanded its operations from traditional posts to ads on Facebook, then traditional posts on all social media.

Doppelganger posts were also seen at the start of this year for the first time on Bluesky, the platform attracting many X users disaffected with Elon Musk's ownership.

Messages are generally boosted by many bot accounts that have similar characteristics -- AI-generated profile photos, identical biographies, dozens of replies to messages produced in a few days.

"The American Democrats lit the fuse in Ukraine, and now it's the EU countries that have to foot the bill!" posted a user called "Jake Fitzgerald" on Bluesky.

The campaign "adapts to current events... focuses on real problems and tries to extrapolate them to make them worse", Bodnar said.

On Bluesky, profiles generally respond to influential accounts to gain visibility, said Valentin Chatelet, of the Atlantic Council's digital analysis laboratory.

He said the operation showed "a certain level of sophistication".

So far, Doppelganger content across all platforms has not attracted a large audience.

"The odd thing in this case is that... part of their success is the press coverage denouncing them and the platforms and researchers reports revealing what their objective is: blatant Russian propaganda," said Kuster.

A.Wyss--NZN